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vCenter event collector

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vCenter event collector

The vCenter event collector is a MID Server extension that listens
for vCenter-related events and updates the CMDB accordingly.

The event collector allows the CMDB to be updated with changes
to virtual machines (VMs), in addition to the updates detected by Discovery. A change to a
VM is sent as an event from the vCenter server to the vCenter event collector. When an event
is received, the CMDB is updated accordingly. Full vCenter Discovery does not need to rerun.
For some events, such as powered on and powered off events, Discovery does not need to run
again at all. For most events, Discovery runs only on the necessary vCenter resource.

For example, if a VM is turned off, the vCenter server sends the event
VmPoweredOffEvent. The vCenter event collector receives and processes the
event and the CMDB is updated to reflect that the state of the corresponding VM is set to
off.

Important: With this extension, Discovery can only modify the state of a VM which
exists in the CMDB. When an event with "CreatedEvent" occurs in its name, such as
VmCreatedEvent, Discovery scans that VM and then creates the CI using the data it collects.
When a new event occurs involving that CI, Discovery can update the existing record without
launching another scan.

How vCenter events are processed

The instance converts the subscribed vCenter events into system events (sysevent) that the
system uses to perform tasks, such as email notification.

The MID Server listens for the vCenter events configured in the vCenter Event Collector
form. When one of these events is returned from vCenter, the instance parses the payload
with a business rule that converts the vCenter event into a system event.

Note: If the MID
server is paused when a vCenter event occurs, the MID server still processes the event. In
this case, it is possible for the event collector to display a status of
Started.

The resulting sysevents contain these values:

Name: Name of the system event created from the vCenter event.
This value is always automation.vcenter.

Parm1: vCenter event that was returned. This event must be
associated with an event collector record.

Parm2: Event data provided by vCenter, in JSON format.

Figure 1. Log entries for vCenter events

Supported vCenter events

The following events are the only vCenter events handled by the base system when Discovery is activated. If you have
upgraded your instance from an earlier version, you might not have the default events added
with later releases. To use the missing events, manually add them.

Table 1. vCenter events

Event name

Description

Launches probe

VM events

VmPoweredOnEvent

The VM has been powered on from the powered off state or resumed from the
suspended state. This event is sent when the VM is powered on. It does not account
for the time it may take to boot the host operating system.

None

DrsVmPoweredOnEvent

The VM has been powered on by a distributed resource schedule (DRS), which
balances workload between available resources.

None

VmRestartedOnAlternateHostEvent

The VM was restarted on another host because the original host
failed.

None

VmPoweredOffEvent

The VM has been powered off. If the host OS is shut down, this event is sent
after the host OS shuts down and the VM enters the powered off state.

None

VmPowerOffOnIsolationEvent

The VM has been powered off on an isolated host in an HA cluster.

None

VmShutdownOnIsolationEvent

The VM has been shut down on an isolated host in an HA cluster.

None

VmSuspendedEvent

The VM is suspended. This event is sent after the VM suspension is
complete.

None

VmRelocatedEvent

The VM has been relocated while offline (either suspended or powered off). A
VM migration of the VM to a different host, or the migration of any storage used
by the VM triggers the event.